Toyota overcame Crispa’s fourth quarter comeback to win the first game of the 1981 PBA Open Conference championship series.
Toyota tops Crispa
Takes best-of-5 opener, 123-116
By Philip Evardone
Bulletin Today
Published Friday July 17, 1981
Toyota refused to wilt under a settling Crispa rally last night and came up with a 123-116 victory in the opener of their best-of-five PBA Open Conference title playoff at the Araneta Coliseum.
The Super Diesels, reduced to rubbles on account of foul disqualifications, had to lean on the relief job of Victor King and the last-minute heroism of Danilo Florencio and Ramon Fernandez to secure the hard-earned victory.
The Redmanizers had trailed practically all the way but a searing 10-2 rally brought the game to where it started, 110-all, 2:06 left to the delight of some 10,000 fans.
But after fighting to tie the count for the last time at 112-all, 1:48 remaining, the Super Diesels regained their fire to assure their second straight victory in five matches against Crispa this season.
“The team is in its peak and I think the boys are mentally prepared for this championship series,” commented Toyota team manager Ricky Silverio, who had to entertain inquiring newsmen in the absence of coach Ed Ocampo, who by sheer excitement left immediately after the post-game pep talk.
Crispa coach Baby Dalupan on the other hand said that the sluggishness of his boys both in offense and defense accounted for the loss.
“Parang namatay ang mga katawan ng mga players,” Dalupan said, adding that Toyota capitalized more on fastbreak conversions than his team.
Dethroned champion U-Tex banked on the last-minute heroics of Matthew Gaston to hack out a 107-103 decision over San Miguel Beer in their own series for third place.
Signs of a Crispa defeat came early in the second quarter when James Hardy had to finish the half with the sole of his left rubber shoes breaking apart.
A four-minute brown-out with Toyota on top, 42-36, 4:26 to go in the second quarter forced both Dalupan and Ocampo to plot their strategies in darkness but Ocampo seemed to have benefited from it as Toyota went on to lead by 10, 48-38 without the troika of Robert Jaworski, Fernandez and Andrew Fields before winding up with a 57-46 halftime lead.
The Super Diesels led by as many as 16 points, 75-59, en route to an 88-79 third quarter bubble.
But the fouling out of Jaworski, Fields and Arnold Tuadles gave Crispa the initiative to narrow the gap and then tie the score twice, the last at 112-all.
Hubalde missed on what looked like an easy layup and Bernard Fabiosa was slapped a costly violation, paving the way for important Toyota points.
The second game of the series will be played tomorrow, also at 7:30 p.m.
The individual scores:
Toyota — 123
Fernandez 26
Florencio 17
Fields 17
Tuadles 16
Arnaiz 16
A. King 11
V. King 10
Jaworski 4
Legaspi 4
Herrera 2
Crispa — 116
Hubalde 30
Hardy 26
Fabiosa 16
Co 12
Jones 9
Cezar 8
Dionisio 6
Carpio 5
Guidaben 4
Varela 0
Mamaril 0
Quarterscores: 33-26, 57-46, 88-79, 123-116
Refs: J. Caparas, L. Jones
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